John Fingert researches the genetic basis of glaucoma. He is just one of countless researchers at the University of Iowa and across the country whose research could be scaled back, or even discontinued, if Congress fails to delay spending cuts by March 1.

“It’s a pound of flesh,” the UI ophthalmology associate professor said during a panel discussion on Monday. “When you’re asking someone for cuts, you’re really asking for your livelihood.”

Fingert said recent cuts amounted to 19 percent of his budget, and they have forced him to avoid using costly stem cells to further his research. However, those cuts would be smaller in scale compared to the so-called “sequestration.”

Sequestration is rooted in the 2011 Budget Control Act passed during the debt-ceiling debate. The agreement raised the debt ceiling in exchange for $1.2 trillion in spending cuts.

The debt ceiling is the total amount the United States can borrow to meet its existing obligations. However, the committee whose responsibility it was to implement the cuts failed to reach an agreement.

This forced automatic spending cuts ranging from medical research to aspects of defense spending. These cuts were originally scheduled to go into effect in January 2012, but they were delayed until March 1.

“[I’m not] even hopeful, let alone optimistic, anything will happen before March 1,” said Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, who held the discussion at the UI Hospitals and Clinics and opposed the 2011 Act. “This is the easy way out to do something quickly like slashing and cutting and not talk about the long-term effects.”

Officials from around the UI detailed how possible cuts would affect their area of research on campus.

“Research isn’t something you can turn off for a few months and turn back on and have it where it was before,” said Edwin Stone, the director of the Institute for Vision Research. “What took two months to destroy can take three, four years to build back, and some of it might never come back.”